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I meant to answer this earlier but I don't have anything to show what cable this is. I don't know and I guess I don't understand why the cable would make a difference. If you think I should buy the correct cable I will, maybe Best Buy or Staples.

Thanks...

I have five different miniDP > DP, miniDP > HDMI cables sitting in my office right now from trying to get full 4K UHD @ 60Hz on two different monitors. Suffice to say it took me a lot of cable switching and experimenting 'til I actually got it to work.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
I cannot get 4k (3840×2160) output to work at all on my Surface Book, either with or without the Surface Dock. I have a Panasonic TC-55CX420U 4k TV that support HDMI 2.0, all the inputs on the TV have been configured to use an HDMI 2.0 link (vs the default 1.4 link). I am using a Zakix 6 ft certified HDMI 2.0b cable and the official MS Surface mini-dp to HDMI adapter and I am trying to extend the displays not mirror them. Unfortunately the highest mode I can select for the external monitor is 1920x1080@60Hz... I should be able to select 3840×2160@60Hz but no dice. And I have tried this with the mini-dp to HDMI adapter connected both through the official Surface Dock and directly to the keyboard section, no difference in behavior.

I have tried unplugging, replugging, rebooting, and powercycling the components in every permutation possible. I have also tried uninstalling and reinstalling all the drivers, I even tried a complete reformat and reinstall of windows 10. And according the windows update my system is completely up to date. But still no 4k option!!

Here is the REAL head scratcher though... previously I COULD output 4k resolution using an after market mini-dp to HDMI adapter but I could not get audio over HDMI to work with it (never showed up under playback devices, impossible to set HDMI as audio output), that is why I ordered the official microsoft surface mini-dp to HDMI adapter. When I plugged in the official adapter, I immediately got audio over HDMI working, but now it wouldn't let me select higher than 1080p! So then I tried swapping back in the old aftermarket adapter, and it now has the exact same problem! No 4k on either adapter now!

At least audio over HDMI works now >_< this surface book has been nothing but a nightmare of problems since I got it.

The Official mDP to HDMI wasn't HDMI 2.0 its 1.4....

I'm using this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017BQCUGW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

With this: Amazon.com: HDMI Cable 6ft - HDMI 2.0 Ready (4K @ 60Hz, 18Gbps) - Braided Cord (28AWG) - High Speed with Ethernet & Audio Return Channel - Video 4K 2160p, HD 1080p, 3D - Xbox, PlayStation, PS3, PS4, PC, Apple TV: Home Audio & Theater

Works great and drives my 4K at 60Hz
 

jag88

New Member

Question, does that setup support 4k @ 60Hz *and audio over HDMI at the same time? I am seeing some of the amazon reviews that say folks can do either 4k @ 60Hz with no audio or 4k @ 30Hz with audio but not 4k @ 60Hz with audio... which is kinda clutch. And don't you think it is a bit crazy that the official adapter doesn't support HDMI 2.0!? Wow that was a waste of $30...sigh
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
Question, does that setup support 4k @ 60Hz *and audio over HDMI at the same time? I am seeing some of the amazon reviews that say folks can do either 4k @ 60Hz with no audio or 4k @ 30Hz with audio but not 4k @ 60Hz with audio... which is kinda clutch. And don't you think it is a bit crazy that the official adapter doesn't support HDMI 2.0!? Wow that was a waste of $30...sigh
I get audio and 60Hz using it. The Official Adapter came out in 2012....HDMI 2.0 wasn't a thing yet....
 

jag88

New Member
I get audio and 60Hz using it. The Official Adapter came out in 2012....HDMI 2.0 wasn't a thing yet....
Awesome, ordered. Yea I still think it is crazy that the accessories they are selling for the surface devices are not up to date. If the Surface 3, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book all support HDMI 2.0 then microsoft should sell an adapter that supports it, anyway just my opinion, strikes me as laziness on the part of MS.
 

rolldog

New Member
Question, does that setup support 4k @ 60Hz *and audio over HDMI at the same time? I am seeing some of the amazon reviews that say folks can do either 4k @ 60Hz with no audio or 4k @ 30Hz with audio but not 4k @ 60Hz with audio... which is kinda clutch. And don't you think it is a bit crazy that the official adapter doesn't support HDMI 2.0!? Wow that was a waste of $30...sigh
On my Surface Book 2, I have a USB type C to HDMI 2.0 adapter, which hooks up my Surface Book 2 to my Sony A1E. I have it running constantly at 3840 x 2160 60hz 12 bit YCbCr422 HDR. It'll run 4:4:4, but the framerate drops.

My problem is hooking up my Samsung Odyssey HMD. I use the same adapter for the HDMI port on the HMD, but for some reason, it's always trying to be run by the integrated Intel GPU instead of the Nvidia GPU, which is when blocky artifacts start appearing on the screen and everything becomes unresponsive. No video is ever shown through the HMD. It seems like the Nvidia GPU would pick this up automatically,. I've only had it a couple of days now and haven't been able to spend much time trying to figure it out, but seeing Microsoft running Christmas specials for the Surface Book 2, which comes with an HMD, it seems like this issue would be resolved first. The only thing I haven't done yet is to look in the BIOS to see if I can dedicate a GPU for particular things. If not, I might have to disable the Intel GPU entirely, which would suck because it won't purely be focused on running the HMD. I thought with a recent rollout of Windows 10, it gave you the ability to run 2 GPUs, even if they're both different brands as long as one was integrated into the CPU.

One more thing I forgot to add, if you turn the Surface display completely off, you'll be able to get a much higher resolution, higher refresh rate, higher color depth, etc, or a combination of the above. If you leave it set on duplicate or extend so the screen of the Surface stays on, the quality that you can push to the second monitor drops significantly.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
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Charles Yao

New Member
my surface book 2 clipboard is vibrating while running apps and the top most bar of pixels on my screen is flickering. I 1-to-1 exchanged it with microsoft and the issue is still there. please help.
 

ncameron

Member
Just to say that before tearing hair out or buying loads more video cables; it must be worth trying the display cache clear routine indicated here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...roubleshoot-surface-dock-and-docking-stations

It has worked for me several times when the SB (for no apparent reason) just refuses to recognise an externally connected monitor - even one that had previously been working happily, and I have initially suspected a faulty cable or monitor or docking station...
 

unruledboy

Active Member
I have Surface Book 2 13'', and I am so confused with 4K output support.

I just bought a Philips BDM4350UC 43" LED LCD Gaming Monitor UHD 4K 3840x2160, and also this USB-C Type C USB 3.1 To DisplayPort DP 4K 60HZ Male Adapter Cable for a cheap price, according to the specs, it will work for my scenario, but the thing is, it won't deliver until September, so I changed by mind, bought another one, which will be delivery in 3 days for $10 extra: CHOETECH USB-C to DisplayPort Adapter Cable (4K@60Hz, (4ft/1.2m) .

But then I just realized the latter one says:
1.It only works for Thunderbolt 3 compatible Type-C port.
2.It is not compatible with devices which do not support the protocol of DP alt mode.

And then I checked Microsoft website, it clearly says it is NOT Thunderbolt 3 compatible.

Which means the latter one does not work? And how about the first one?

Please help!
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
I have Surface Book 2 13'', and I am so confused with 4K output support.

I just bought a Philips BDM4350UC 43" LED LCD Gaming Monitor UHD 4K 3840x2160, and also this USB-C Type C USB 3.1 To DisplayPort DP 4K 60HZ Male Adapter Cable for a cheap price, according to the specs, it will work for my scenario, but the thing is, it won't deliver until September, so I changed by mind, bought another one, which will be delivery in 3 days for $10 extra: CHOETECH USB-C to DisplayPort Adapter Cable (4K@60Hz, (4ft/1.2m) .

But then I just realized the latter one says:
1.It only works for Thunderbolt 3 compatible Type-C port.
2.It is not compatible with devices which do not support the protocol of DP alt mode.

And then I checked Microsoft website, it clearly says it is NOT Thunderbolt 3 compatible.

Which means the latter one does not work? And how about the first one?

Please help!
The first cable would work from the description and specs. I bought the Microsoft USB C to HDMI adapter personally, it is an active adapter and does what I need it to do...
 

unruledboy

Active Member
The first cable would work from the description and specs. I bought the Microsoft USB C to HDMI adapter personally, it is an active adapter and does what I need it to do...

Yes, I read about it from other thread in the forum, it would be last resort. I had to test the new monitor in an old desktop which can only support 4K at 30Hz, but the quality is just stunning, and 43'' is just crazy.
 

Richy

New Member
I am having issues being able to extend the desktop to 2 external screens.

I just purchased a surface book 2 - 15" with the following specs:

- 16GB RAM 1866Mhz LPDDR3

- 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8650U quad-core processor

- 4.2GHz Max Turbo and NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 discrete GPU with 6GB GDDR5 graphics memory.

I also purchased a surface dock. The surface dock has 2 x mini DP ports and 2 x USB 3.0 ports.

I also have a Dell Ultra Sharp 34” Curved Ultrawide Monitor (U3415W). The Dell U3415W monitor has the following video inputs: 1 x mini DP, 1 x DP, 1 x HDMI and 1 x MHL. And has the capability of displaying 4 discrete video inputs simultaneously (supposedly).

I connected the surface dock to the monitor with 2 cables. The first connection is from the surface dock mini DP port to the monitor's HDMI video input using a mini DP to DP cable and a DP to HDMI converter. The second connection is from the surface dock mini DP port to the monitor’s DP video input using a mini DP to DP cable.

When I try to extend the desktop to utilize the monitor as 2 independent screens, Windows 10 only recognizes one of the screens (the HDMI input on the monitor). Windows 10 does not recognize the screen via the DP input on the monitor. Also, the screen displays the HDMI input, but the monitor tells me there is no signal from the DP input (although it knows there is a cable plugged into the DP input).

Can anyone help me? I would like to leave the surface book connected to the surface dock (with the surface book closed) and have the desktop extended to 2 screens on the single monitor. Thanks for any help you can provide.
 
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